Bill Orcutt & Chris Corsano

Bill Orcutt og Chris Corsano. Foto: Peter Gannushkin.

Over the last five years, the duo of Chris Corsano and Bill Orcutt have flayed eardrums and blown minds worldwide with a wildly polyrhythmic, high-register wail that splits the difference between rock, noise and jazz.

As a co-founder of free-punk demolition crew Harry Pussy, Orcutt inspired entire genres of noise rock, and a decade after Harry Pussy’s demise, reemerged as a solo performer, creating a singular guitar lexicon suited for both discursive improvisation and cracked reinvention of the American songbook.

Chris Corsano is the rim-batterer of choice for some of the heaviest contemporary purveyors of both “jazz” (Evan Parker, Paul Flaherty, Joe McPhee) and “rock” (Björk, Sir Richard Bishop, Jim O’Rourke), and is a formidable solo performer in his own right. Their explosive mayhem has been documented on Orcutt’s Palilalia label over the course of several live releases, most recently on the double LP «Live at Various/Various Live». Their first ever studio recording is scheduled for release in 2018.

«These drum-and-guitar improvisations provide the illusion of chaos. There’s no way, it seems, that Corsano’s onslaught of drum rolls and cymbal splashes and Orcutt’s barbed knots and strands of pock-marked notes could be under control. But the longer you listen, the more the communication– and, what’s more, control– become abundantly clear. During one piece, for instance, Orcutt suddenly locks into a single, few-note phrase and repeats it manically; Corsano fits inside of it, beating at its borders until Orcutt lets it wither into a busted theme that’s much smaller and more uncertain. They both collapse into silence for an instant but then blast ahead in a tantrum that’s so saturated and stormy it suggests all the strength of black metal’s second wave. It’s mean, bordering on frightening.» Pitchfork on Orcutt/Corsano Duo

Chris Corsano
Chris Corsano is a drummer who has been working at the instersections of free improvisation, avant-rock, and noise musics since the late 1990’s. He’s played with saxophonists like Paul Flaherty, Joe McPhee, and Evan Parker; string aces Sir Richard Bishop, Okkyung Lee, and Jim O’Rourke; and one-of-a-kind artists like Björk, Ghédalia Tazartès, Merzbow, and Jandek. Constantly on the hunt to expand his sound beyond conventional ideas of what drums can and can’t do, he attacks his kit with everything from cello strings stretched across drumheads to contact microphones to a slew of extended techniques of his own creation.

“Corsano, despite being arguably the most riotosly energetic and creative drummer in contemporary free jazz, does far more than merely bash his kit into submission. Playing loud does not mean abandoning subtlety, and Corsano’s sudden shifts of texture and dynamics are a wonder to behold” – The Wire

Bill Orcutt
Former guitarist and founder of the duo Harry Pussy (later a trio) Bill Orcutt’s sound is a stuttered reimagining of blues guitar. One can hear familiar Southern folk scales between Orcutt’s jagged solo acoustic phrases, pulling and pushing melodies into unresolved fragments that eventually come unmoored in vast and satisfying note-torrents.